Introduction

 

“It’s just a chair isn’t it?” I hear you say when the the term ‘gaming chair’ is used…

Well, you definitely could said that or as I would say, always looking on the positive side, “a new opportunity to explore another frontier in gaming peripheral”.

OK, perhaps I am glamourising it a bit too much, but in recent years there has been an ever increasing interest in ‘gaming’ focused chairs that have a racing / bucket seat design.

You only have to have a quick glance around a major LAN event (such as Insomnia Gaming festival) to see the many gamers use these well built gaming chairs as a miniature trolley to transsport their rigs to the venue  as well as to perch themselves on for the weekend.

But what makes these gaming chairs so good? Do they blow conventional office equipment out of the water?

Well, let’s start by answering that with a shallow observation: they look pretty awesome!

 

But surely, looks alone cannot carry you to gaming chair comfort nirvana can it?

Good question – let’s find out….

Product Assembly

 

E-Win have kindly subsidised the cost of the review sample of the E-Win Champion Series CPH gaming chair so we are able to bring you our review today.

First up, let’s take a look a the build process for the chair from unboxing to completion.

The chair arrived in a large, heavy but relatively square package adorned with ‘E-Win’ tape over the box – there was no guessing what was going to be inside:

Keen to crack the beast out of its lair, I ignore the warning of not to use a knife to open the tape.  “I’ll be careful” I thought as I used a sharp kitchen knife to tentatively split the tape at the seams.  Thankfully E-Win anticipated numpties like me might be a bit over zealous to get into the box by placing a good tactical shield of cardboard on the top of package.  Good job, because, if you look at the picture below closely, I put in a nice knife score into package that would have otherwise gone into the chair’s fabric:

First out of the box is the star-shaped base.  Immediately you can see this is going to be a pleasure of a product in terms of build quality right out of the gate.  The E-Win Champion Series CPH gaming chair base is made of solid aluminium and you can tell this is a solid foundation that will last for years to come:

Once the upper layer of cardboard and the base is removed, you can now see into the contents of the box.  This reveals a very well packaged chair that comes in two distinct parts – the backrest and the seat tray.  This is a clever piece of packaging which minimises the amount of effort that the customer needs to undertake to complete assembly:

After taking the backrest out of the packaging and propping it up against the wall for later, you get the first glimpse of the sheer build quality and materials used in this chair – they are off the scale.  The smell, touch and look of backrest alone was staggering – I was completely unprepared to experience this level of quality that has been put into this chair.

The chair features high-quality leather with a special diamond gridded / breathable centre to allow for maximum comfort and to minimise undesirable human ‘stickage’ to chair itself.  The backrest comes with the neck and lumber cushions pre-installed which are kept in position with straps, that clip together on the rear side of the chair:

Next out of the box is the all-important seat tray.  Continuing the use of the diamond-gridded breathable material is a welcome addition to leather chair which would otherwise see you permanently adhered to the chair after an epic gaming session.  We can see the ‘4D’ armrests which can adjust in height, rotation and slide backwards and forwards to make sure your elbows and forearms are in the perfect position.

The material used on the arm rests is also top-notch – these are not hard plastic, rather these feel like a hard ‘foam’ texture which provide a comfortable amount of ‘give’ to them, while still remaining rigid enough to serve their purpose.  The seat tray itself is a ‘bucket’ seat design with raised sides and features a nice thick layer of memory foam.

This feels quite tough at first, like most memory foam products but will adjust itself over time the longer you use it.  The tension and resistance it gives is a testament to how well this product will keep its shape over time.  Finally the two struts that connect the seat tray with the backrest is covered with with a foam/paper material to protect it during transit:

Last out of the box is a tool-kit required to assemble the remainder of the chair:

After unpacking the tool-kit, we have a pair of side-bolt plastic covers, the seat life lever and reclining stiffness adjuster, the class-4 gas lift cylinder and telescopic plastic cover, 5 high-quality caster wheels, a pair of gloves, Allen keys and bolts required for assembly.  E-Win have thought of everything here and no other 3rd party tools are required for assembly:

Lastly, inside the tool kit are the instructions for assembly.  The layout of this single folded piece of paper is somewhat odd and reads like playing a game of snakes and ladders; you start in the top left and follow the arrows in a ‘snaking’ pattern down the page – very odd.  This threw me off as I was expecting to go down to the next line and started trying to perform step ‘6’ instead of step ‘4’.  The photos are a little blurry and not very helpful at times.  My best advice – use this as a guide and let your intuition guide you – I made much better progress this way!

Moving onto the assembly photos,  I place the seat tray onto the floor, remove the packaging from the struts and line up the best rest.  This isn’t the easiest task at this stage as there is nothing to support the back rest at this point.

There are pre-punched holes in the leather with the bolts pass through to screw into the threads below the surface.  Be careful of the bolt alignment at this stage; as you can see in the photo below, I hadn’t got these completely square and needed to unscrew and re-align this before continuing.

Once the first side is aligned properly and in position, the other side is much easier to align and screw in.  Pictured here is one of the side guards and screw – note that these are different sizes – the one with the larger angled shape at the bottom goes on the right; don’t make the mistake I did and get these two the wrong way around 🙂 :

Next up, we place the chair on its back so we can access the underside.  Again, we see some more outstanding build quality – the seat cushion is suspended on a series of heavy duty straps which provides additional support and comfort during use.  Some heavy duty bolts need removing at this point in preparation for mounting the seat adjustment lever assembly:

We are then able to mount the E-Win Champion Series CPH gaming chair seat adjustment assembly using the bolts we removed in the previous step.  Make sure you face the ‘Front’ in the direction the arrow is pointing towards the front of the seat.  Thankfully this was something I was able to manage to get correct first time 🙂 :

After the Seat Adjustment Assembly has been installed, we move back to the base again.  Turning it upside down, we grab the x5 caster wheels from earlier and push them into the slots provided – simples:

Next we flip the base back around the right-way up and insert the gas lift piston into position.  Insert the wider end into the hole provided:

…then add the telescopic gas lift piston cover over the top:

Finally, we align the hole on the seat adjustment assembly on the seat base with the gas lift piston.  Tip – it greatly helps to have a second person hold the chair while you line the two parts together.  Et Voilà! You have now successfully assembled the E-Win Champion Series CPH gaming chair!

What a beast – not only does it look the part but it is built like a tank!  I look forward to years of gaming with this baby 🙂

But how does it perform?  Is it comfortable?

Well let’s take this baby for a spin and find out…

Testing and Performance

 

So we know the chair looks amazing, features fantastic build quality and materials but this would be all for nothing is it doesn’t serve its purpose as a great gaming perch.

First, let’s take a look at the official specifications and dimensions from the manufacturer:

• Chair Type: Gaming/Office Chair
• Foam Type:High Density Seperated Foaming
• Foam Density: 55kg/m3
• Frame Color: Black
• Frame Construction: Metal
• Adjustable Armrests: 4D
• Mechanism Type: Multi-functional Tilt
• Tilt Lock: Yes
• Tilt Angle Lock: Yes
• Gas Lift Class: 4
• Chair/Seat Back Style: High-back
• Adjustable Back Angle: 85-155 Degrees
• Base Type: 5-star Wide Aluminum Base
• Caster Size & Material: 2″ Caster/PU

But how does this perform in practice?

Fear not reader, you do not have to read a wall of text about my thoughts and opinions on this chair.

Instead we offer for your viewing pleasure, a video review of the beast where I test drive and show you what it has to offer.

17 minutes too long?  TL:DR summary:

• Amazing build quality
• Looks fantastic
• Outstanding materials used
• Initially uncomfortable – memory foam takes a while to ‘bed in’
• Expensive for what is essentially ‘a chair’
• If you are looking for pure comfort and adjustability, you may be disappointed vs a high-end office chair

Conclusion and Rating

 

Before concluding and scoring the review, I would like to take the opportunity to again extend a massive thank you to E-Win for subsidising the cost of the review sample of this excellent gaming chair so that we could provide you with this article. You can check out E-win’s extensive catalogue of amazing looking gaming chairs on their website, here.

E-Win have ticked all the boxes any gamer would be primarily looking for with the E-Win Champion Series CPHgaming chair  – amazing looks, premium material and a build quality that would make a tank blush.

After the initial honeymoon period subsides, however, you do start to analyse your decision in a bit more depth.  Taking cost, initial comfort and limited areas of adjustment into consideration, this slightly tarnishes what could have been a home run for E-Win.

The summary of our findings are as below:

Pros:

• Incredible looks – the all black design of E-Win Champion Series CPH gaming chair and use of premium materials / design is fantastic.  Full marks in this area – this is a chair you would proudly wheel into a LAN party any day of the week
• Build quality – off the scale.  I cannot praise this enough; the combination of steel frame, memory foam, suspended seat tray, base and casters are absolutely insane.  The term ‘built like a tank’ gets thrown around far too often but in this case, it is entirely justified
• Armrests – good level of adjustment (height, rotation and forward/backwards sliding) and comfortable to rest forearms and elbows on.  Plenty of space to get my chunky tree-trunk thighs under to sit cross legged = win
• Recline – this gaming chair reclines in a nearly horizontal position.  Use your imagination to put this to good use 😉
• Silence – smooth rotation, movement on casters and no squeaking when sitting down or standing up.  All indications of great build quality
• 5-Year Warranty

 

Cons:

• With an RRP €309 on E-Win’s European site, this is a very expensive chair.  You can, however, use code RQ on https://www.ewinracing.eu for a 10% discount
• Comfort – this is not the most comfortable chair I’ve ever used initially.  The memory foam takes time to ‘train’ before it becomes comfortable.  Even once adjusted, I fear, for this price a high-end office chair would have the edge but this likely applies to most gaming chairs
• Weight – while the build quality is fantastic, the weight is not.  If you are intending to take this thing to LANs regularly, you will be in for a tough time lifting in / out of the car
• Limited ergonomic adjustment – whilst better than most gaming chairs, the bucket seat combined with lack of seat tray lateral / tilt adjustment means the design favours style over comfort to a degree

The E-Win Champion Series CPH is an outstaning looking chair, utilising excellent materials and providing a build quality that is hard to put at fault. The inherrient flaws of a gaming chair design, however, are still apparent and therefore comfort and limited ergonmic adjustment take a hit as a result. Despite these small shortcomings, E-Win Champion Series CPH is still an excellent gaming chair and is worthy of the RageQuitters Epic Award:

 

Note: This is a review post from Ragequitters.